Magikarp Life
by Decent Pretzel
Summary: This is the tale of a once-simple Magikarp who saves the sea and becomes a legend among fish. No matter the challenge he faces, nothing stops him on his quest to take down the oppressive Sharpedo Legion and their mysterious king. He may not be the sharpest Quick Claw in the Bag, but what he lacks in brains, he more than makes up for in positive attitude.


Hi, my name's Moby! I'm a Magikarp! Isn't that cool?

Something I like is when Pokémon tell me about fun adventures. Sometimes they talk about when they swam straight through a whirlpool, and sometimes they talk about when they found a really cool seaweed. But whatever the adventure is, I'm always surprised by how crazy it gets. That's why I want to tell you about my own fun adventure. Get ready, everyone, because it's going to grab you by your gills!

It started when I was doing one of my favorite activities. I was watching a bunch of things being carried by the current through my coastline's rocky mounds. I liked looking at all the bits of seaweed and pebbles going by. Suddenly, something unusual caught my fancy: a see-through baggy thing twirling around in the current. I decided it'd be a cool target to try my new attack on.

Using all the not-fresh air in my body, I puffed up my mouth. I opened it to force all the air out hard, and that made a bubble. It was real big and shiny, so I was proud. I turned around toward one of the rocky mounds, where I bit onto a rock jutting out. While I held myself in place that way, I waved my tail super hard and fast. I made my own little current that sent my bubble drifting toward the baggy thing. This was the amazing attack I invented: Hyper Bubble!

It missed. But it was pretty close, so I tried again. It missed that time too. My attack was cool though, so I had fun trying over and over. Eventually, my bubble did hit something! Except, it wasn't the baggy thing. It was a Pokémon passing by. He looked over at me after the bubble popped on his head. He must have thought my attack was pretty neat, because he came swimming up to meet me.

"Hey," he chuckled, "you know what? I've been looking for a good annoying runt to rough up. I think you'll do fine."

He was a Carvanha. I knew that because I liked learning about all kinds of Pokémon. Out of all the Pokémon, Carvanha like him were some of the funniest-looking. They were kind of like Magikarp, except their teeth were big and wacky. But this one was especially funny. He had a little red scale in the middle of his nose area.

I asked him, "I'll do fine? I'm glad I can help, but what should I do?"

"Nothing at all! I just need a little EXP from you. Just the last bit so I can evolve."

In an instant, he closed his pokey teeth on my tail. He turned his body in a circle so he could toss me into some rocks. After a moment, I came back to my senses, and I lifted myself off the rocks with my fins.

"Ooh," I said, "that hurt. I hope I was a good help though."

But the Carvanha didn't respond yet. Instead, get this: he was busy glowing white! His body changed shape, and he got bigger. When the glowing went away, he wasn't a Carvanha anymore. I couldn't believe it! He was a Sharpedo!

"Whoa!" I said. "That's amazing!"

"Yeah, it is amazing, 'cause I get to be in the king's Sharpedo Legion now. Weakling runts like you have to suck up to me by law."

He may have been a different Pokémon now, but he was still the same wacky guy I liked. He still had that red scale on his nose.

I said, "I'm so happy for you! You seem like the kind of guy who deserves it."

"Huh, good choice of words, squirt. I guess I won't eat you. But I might come back later to beat you up more. We'll see, 'cause I just get to do what I feel like now. See ya!"

He zoomed out of sight using the new, speedy water jet on his backside.

While I felt special for being such a great help, I decided it was time to start practicing Hyper Bubble again. As soon as I started swimming into position, I noticed my tail hurt a lot. It got bitten pretty hard. There was no way it could push bubbles like that. In that case, I figured I might as well hang out in the Kelp Hole instead, a cool place where I could find some stuff to eat. I began swimming there excitedly, even though it hurt a bunch because of my tail.

The weird thing is, I think someone was following me. It was kind of hard to focus with the pain, but I could've sworn it. I glanced back a couple times and saw what looked like a bubble trail leading behind a rock.

It wasn't a terribly long time before I reached the Kelp Hole. It was a huge crater in the seafloor filled with a bunch of tall kelp wiggling around. The hole looked so green. I swam down into it, kelp brushing my sides as I went to the bottom. There, the water felt all warm and cozy. I heard it was like that because of a little "hydrothermal vent," so that was pretty cool.

I swam along the sandy ground around the kelp bases, collecting plankton in my open mouth. There was a burst of yummy flavor whenever I stopped to crunch them. It was a good time. But, it was about to get even better.

When I was in a little clearing among the kelp, I spotted a light blue figure behind some stalks. It paddled through the thicket toward me. It poked its long snout out of the kelp, and it gazed at me quietly. Its eyes, which were each surrounded by a wavy black crest, slanted as they kept looking.

"Hi!" I said. "Don't be shy! My name's Moby! What's yours?"

After a second, the stranger responded, "Tira."

She was a Totodile - a really cool-looking one because of those marks around her eyes. Judging by how quiet she was, she must have had a lot of interesting stuff going on in her head.

After more silence, she finally said, "I saw that punk attack you. You must be pretty mad about that, huh?"

Was I? I thought he was a swell guy, but I guess he did go a little too hard on my tail. Maybe Tira knew more about me than I did.

"Yup!" I decided. "I sure am!"

"Okay… you're smiling as you say that, but whatever. That's good to hear."

Tira swept the kelp stalks out of her way with her arms and swam up to me.

"You see," she continued, "I'm pretty mad about that too. I'm mad this kind of thing always happens around here. This whole section of the ocean - the 'Kingdom of Craynum' - is a legalized cesspool of bullies."

"Wow, you're right. It really is an evil fried med school of bullies."

"Yeah. Everyone on the weaker side gets abused and oppressed by the strong, especially by the Sharpedo Legion. What really bothers me is that all the weaker Pokémon seem okay with this. The strong drive them out of their homes to take their food-rich land; the strong force them to brutally fight each other over the little land that's left. And what do the weak do about it? Nothing! I tell them over and over to take a stand, but I'm just wasting their time. Apparently, that's all I'm good for."

Tira looked down for a moment and clenched her fist. Then she looked back up with a twinkle in her eyes.

"But you - you're mad, like I am. You're sick of that twisted king Craynum's tyranny. You want to end this."

"Yup!"

Tira smiled.

"And now, with someone of your talents on the good side, that can't be too hard. I mean, you are a Carvanha, right?"

Me, a Carvanha? I'd never thought about that. Tira was smart though, so I supposed a Magikarp was just a type of Carvanha.

"Yup!" I said. "That's right!"

"Good, I thought so. That gives us an easy ticket for fighting the Kingdom. We just need to get you evolved into a Sharpedo. Then you can infiltrate the Sharpedo Legion, and you can manipulate the others. You can get them to leave the weak alone!"

"Amazing plan!"

"Exactly! First, we need to make sure you're good at battling. You're going to have to defeat lots of punk Pokémon to gain enough EXP. So what moves do you know right now?"

Of course, I didn't know many moves, but I did have a real great one I could show her. The problem was that my tail hurt too much to do it.

"Sorry," I said, "I need to wait to heal a bit before I can show you."

"Oh, right, your bite wound. It does look really bad."

"Do you want to just eat some plankton for now? It's real fun catching them."

"No, no. I have a way better idea for eating something. Here, follow me. I buried an Oran Berry around here. It'll make your tail heal faster, and it means you won't have to eat innocent creatures."

While I followed her, Tira told me all about where she got her Oran Berry. It was the land, a cool place I'd always wanted to check out. Tira said it had all kinds of great things: giant green plants, little good-smelling plants, and huge shelters built by Pokémon-like creatures. But Tira said the greatest thing about the land was that there were no mean kingdoms. The land didn't have tons of bullies who beat you up and stole things. She said she wished this sea was the same way, so I decided I wished that too.

Soon enough, we reached the other end of the Kelp Hole. Tira brushed some kelp stalks aside, showing me a tiny mound behind them. She used her hands to dig into it until she plucked out a little blue ball. She threw it my direction, so I snatched it up in my mouth. This Oran Berry - it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted! Plus, it already made my tail start feeling better.

"Now," Tira said, "ready to show what you got?"

I nodded my body up and down. Tira grinned. I closed my eyes to relax myself, because this move would need perfect focus. A moment passed, and I opened my eyes, fully ready to give it everything I had.

"This is going to be awesome!" Tira remarked. "So much spirit for battle! Those punks won't know what hit them!"

Using all my willpower, I finally unleashed my attack. Opening my mouth, I blew a great big bubble. I waved my tail to push it forward.

"Hyper Bubble!" I screamed.

Tira was quiet. She must have been shocked with amazement.

"That…" she stuttered, "that's it?"

I nodded my body, smiling.

"Is that all you can do?"

I nodded again.

Tira swept her face with her hand.

"Okay," she said, "I need to teach you some real moves. There are way better things you can learn than that… whatever that was."

Better things than Hyper Bubble? I couldn't believe my ears. This sounded super exciting!

"Well then," Tira went on, "it's clear what we're going to have to do for a while. Looks like I'm going to start training you. A lot."

Training me? This was great! It was going to be the first time I was ever trained by someone. And Tira was so smart that I knew everything she taught me would be fantastic. Those bullies weren't going to stand a chance against me, because Tira would make sure of it. She was already becoming my best friend.


End file.
